In my last post on home life, I mentioned seasonal living in Bryson City, our new home town. This is my first time experiencing living in a place that really does have an on and off season. The lifeblood here is tourism and when the tourists leave, it can be… quiet. For business owners and locals, this is a welcome exodus. I’m still getting used to it. 

As I said before, life here runs according to nature’s temperament. Right now, it’s the dead of our winter and nature demands hibernation and stillness. It’s not horribly cold. But compared to Miami (which is currently in its most beautiful season), let’s just call it a tad rough.

At first, and I’m trying not to evoke a sense of dramatics here, it felt like cabin fever. And not cabin fever in the careless way people toss around this term, but in its actual intended use. Don’t worry, in the past I was a repeat offender of this gross overuse. There were many times I had only been in my apartment in Miami, surrounded by walkable amenities in 72 degree weather, for merely 4 hours when I’d lazily throw out a text stating I had cabin fever. Needless to say, those were different times.

Now, I drive to town at 1pm and find coffee shops closed. Do I drive home? Well, no, the breweries never close. It’s one of North Carolina’s best attributes. So, I have a pint of a seasonal brown, pull out my laptop and call it a day. Except it’s not exactly a day. They are many days strung together. I fear by the time our season picks up once again and the weather warms, my beer booty will be a our of control.

Alas, God doesn’t give you more than you can handle. Though it seems as if the breweries are all that remain open, so does the gym. Thus, I learned to acclimate. I am leaning in to my circumstances, as they say. I leave my house to work out and then I treat myself to a beer. Every day. And that, in summary, is seasonal living 😉

Cheers,

Cris